- To control your asthma
- To prevent asthma symptoms
- To decrease the number of asthma attacks
- To help you use quick-relief medicines less often
- To enable you to do normal activities without having symptoms
By far the best treatment advice is to take charge of your asthma or your child's asthma by learning all you can about it and by making changes in your home or lifestyle that can have a significant effect on the severity and frequency of asthma symptoms.
What this means is to decrease your (or your child's) amount of contact with the things that set off, or trigger, asthma symptoms and asthma attacks. There are many things you can do, from removing the family pet from the bedroom to staying indoors on windy, hot days to keeping the home as clean and dust-free as possible.
When you can change your environment enough that you are not having daily contact with the things that trigger your asthma symptoms, you'll find that you start to feel much better. You may also need less asthma medicine. (Be sure, though, to always discuss any treatment changes with your doctor first.)
However, even though you may do all that you can to prevent your contact with your asthma triggers, it is likely that you will still need some kind of asthma medicine too. Most people do. So, it is important to understand the different types of asthma medications and the role each plays in your asthma treatment.
Asthma Medicines
There are 2 main categories of asthma medicines:- Quick-relief, or rescue, medicines. You take these when you begin to notice asthma symptoms to relieve them and keep them from getting worse.
- Controller, or preventive, medicines. You take these to prevent asthma symptoms from starting in the first place, or at least to keep them at a low level.
Both types of asthma medication play an important role in keeping you healthy. If you do not have both types in your current asthma treatment plan, you may want to talk with your doctor. You might also want to think about consulting an asthma specialist.
Quick-relief medicines are usually short-acting bronchodilators, also called beta-agonists. This kind of medicine acts quickly on the muscles of the airways to relax them. As your airways open up, your asthma symptoms should ease. Here are some examples of quick-relief medicines:
Take your quick-relief medicine as soon as you start to notice asthma symptoms, such as wheezing or cough. Don't wait until they become severe.
Controller medicines come in a number of different varieties:
- Inhaled corticosteroids
- Leukotriene modifiers
- Long-acting beta agonists
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Combination medicines
- Immunomodulators
Compare and contrast the different types of asthma medicines
